Hello! A week after completing the half marathon distance from the village of Changikhisarak to Surenata, we returned to these lands again, but this time to Mount Kokbet. Translated from Uzbek, Kokbet means "green back". As it was explained, this is due to the fact that one of the slopes of the mountain is later covered with snow then others, or sometimes it remains completely snowless.
The height of the mountain in different sources varies from 1945 m above sea level to 1949 m. Anyhow, the climb is only about 1000 m and, as it turned out, this is not the easiest event in winter.
As I mentioned earlier, this year I have grandiose plans of conquering new peaks and not only me. During the previous hikes, a small group of permanent participants has formed, who would like not to be limited to simple excursions in the Tashkent region, but to swing at more difficult mountains. And for us Sharof organized this excursion to Kokbet - a good opportunity to test ourselves and test our physical form. During the ascent it was necessary to "trail" – i.e. punch a path up to the waist in the snow for the rest of the participants. For an unprepared person, this is a very difficult task that takes all the strength in just 10-15 minutes. But this is a very good way to burn calories :). Looking ahead, I will say that we all, of course, “trailed”, but the main burden fell on poor Sharof ... Just a couple of days before the outing, I was brought a long-awaited order with winter equipment and I was looking forward to testing it.
So, for the umpteenth time we gathered in the usual place, plunged into the car and drove to mountains. Being already a wise experience, this one I did not start at midnight and went to bed early. Sharof warned that the hike would be intense and that it was necessary to gain strength.
We arrived at the village of Gidzhal early in the morning, before dawn. Having put on our headlamps as usual, we hit the road.
After some time it became brighter, but the sun, unfortunately, was hidden by clouds and therefore the surrounding landscape was not particularly pleasing with colors.
Even when it was finally dawn, it did not become much brighter. The sun was hiding behind the clouds and barely shone, practically not warming. It reminded me of footage from documentaries about the Arctic and the Far North.
The sun had already risen when we approached one of the local farms.
Its owner stole from somewhere a Tashkent street sign that read "Navoi street" and attached it to his gate. It's funny, but it has become a local landmark - I saw several photos of this sign on Instagram.
But we didn’t linger, but continued our ascent. So far, it was not difficult to walk - the snow was ankle-deep and, moreover, it was loose - it was a “pleasure” to walk. I bought new trekking-boots and they kept warm perfectly, not letting in moisture.
We climbed one of the hills and had a small snack under a spreading tree. We didn't eat too much, as there was a rather steep climb ahead.
We got close to the slope of Mount Kokbet and here the most "fun" began. There was a lot of snow on the slope and the slope itself was steep, so the pace of advance slowed down a lot. If before the snow was ankle-deep, now the snowdrifts were above the knee, and in some places up to the waist.
On top of that, I carried a 70-liter backpack on my back, which didn’t make my climb easier. Firstly, I haven’t smaller backpacks. There was a 40-liter one, but the strap came off. Secondly, there was a bunch of changeable clothes in the backpack that I was going to test. Since we all "traled" in turn and at the end of our ascent I was all wet with sweat and decision to take more dry things was very prudent. Although it was hard to drag them :).
We climbed and climbed the slope. Loose snow slid under our feet, complicating the task - having taken one step up, we slid two steps down. I had to literally drive my foot into the snow, making some semblance of a step, and then jerk myself up, trying to climb higher before the snowball rolled down.
Soon the finish of our ascent became visible. We had originally planned to dine there, but the wind was so cold and piercing upstairs that we had to abandon the idea.
And so, with the last of our strength, we climbed to the top. Climbing and "trailing" took a lot of energy and was wet as a mouse. Upstairs, while I was taking off my outerwear and changing into a warm down jacket, the jacket and gloves literally froze and I could hardly bend them and pack them into a backpack. They finally thawed out at home when I was sorting things out.
We caught our breath a little and headed back. The piercing wind made it impossible to relax.
The descent took much less time and effortе because we walked along the already trodden path. Moreover, in some places we just sat on the snow and rolled down.
The sun finally disappeared behind the clouds. The blurry light did not cast shadows, making the surrounding landscape two-dimensional. On the way back, I again photographed the farm with a Tashkent street sign - the photo turned out to be black and white :).
The sun was slowly setting when we went down to the village of Gidzhal.
We walked past a herd of horses grazing on the outskirts of the village to our warm, warm minibus.
All the equipment I bought met my expectations. Surprisingly, despite all day deep in the snow, my feet were dry. And the down jacket reliably protected from wind and cold.
A couple of days later, warm weather returned and winter hiking are not available now. Perhaps in the second half of February it will snow and I will resume testing winter clothes again.
In the meantime, in anticipation of snow, I decided to diversify my travels and not climb another mountain but climb inside the mountain - into the Peshagor cave. But more about that in my next story:).
!pinmapple 41.444837 lat 69.901358 long In the snowy kingdom or winter climbing Mount Kokbet, Tashkent region, Uzbekistan d3scr